Intex 8110 Chlorine Generator Fix

SWGs, salt water chlorine generators, chlorinators,
ozone generators, UV systems, . . .
Strannik-au
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Postby Strannik-au » Tue 27 May, 2008 16:40

Essentially any chlorinator is just a AC/DC converter which applies voltage to the cell. The rest of things are just additional comfort features.


apain
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Joined: Thu 29 May, 2008 15:42

Intex Chlorine Generator

Postby apain » Thu 29 May, 2008 15:50

I'm glad I found the feedback on the Intex Chlorine Generator, I think I'll wait on purchasing until I see something more positive. What issues are there with "hard" water and the unit? Has anyone tried the 2008 model 56601?
AGinCO

Re: Intex Chlorine Generator

Postby AGinCO » Tue 22 Jul, 2008 18:06

I've read this thread last year also have a few tips from experience.

* The type of salt does seem to affect things. Last year I got 25lb bags from SAMs Club and it worked fine, this year I think there was something else in the salt, maybe it was iodized or some coagulants but it made the water a bit cloudy (white). It caused 91 errors for the first two weeks.

* Cleaning the intake grate and the cells has already been mentioned here.

* I keep the filter running almost all of the time.

* I run the chlorine generator in the evenings, also mentioned earlier in this thread.

* For the first week or two of the season, as it takes a good three days to a week to fill the pool from my solar hot water tank, I put a chlorine puck in the skimmer to help keep the water clean while waiting for the generator to become operational. (see point #1 above)

* At the start of the season (my 2nd season only so far), I only run it for an hour or two each time and gradually work up to 4 or 5 hrs each evening or two.

* I have my generator in the shade, at least for 75% of the day anyways.

Note that I haven't tried any of the mods suggested here, just plain out-of-the-box generator.
cbobbett

Intex 8110 91 Error code

Postby cbobbett » Thu 24 Jul, 2008 13:44

Itried turning resistor back a quarter turn. So far that has worked. This is my 3rd generator and I got same song & dance from Intex. Maybe we should sue . Anybody know how to start. Also don"t trust Intex test strips they are garbage. Get agood set from your local pool supply.
mb3mb3

Re: 8110 fix continued

Postby mb3mb3 » Tue 29 Jul, 2008 13:08

edjones72 wrote:To Kenwwod: imagine the screw contacts were numbered 1-4 starting at the bottom, You would move wire 4 to 3 and move wire 1 to 2. You will end up with two wires attached to contact 2 and 3. This bypasses the circuit board and allows the DC current to flow straight to the cell ALL THE TIME WHEN THE UNIT IS PLUGGED IN SO don't leave it on too long without waterflow. The unit will still come on and the LED will still lite up but there is no reason to turn the switch on. From my testing, the transformer is energized all the time when the unit is plugged in just out of the box so this is not a big change. ..... To understand the concept behind the 8110, you can make chlorine with a 9V battery, 2 old spoons, 2 pieces of wire, a drinking glass, and some salt water. It's pretty cool! Let me know if you have any more questions. Make sure it's unplugged before rewiring. It's DC but it can still hurt you.


My 13mo old 8110 unit worked normally for a only couple days this season then started shutting off just seconds after the green LED came on. Must unplug it to reset. All salt and flow level alarms still function normally but it just won't stay running. Salt level is ideal and the water is crystal clear.

I hooked a 12V battery charger up to the cell for a couple days but the unit was only putting out 1-1.5 ppm chlorine.

I then tried edjones72 quoted suggestion. PROBLEM: Bypassing the circuit board leaves the bridge rectifier (which briefly...makes AC into DC...and heat) passively cooled. NOT GOOD without real heatsink. Mine quickly got very hot even without the cover on.

As a test, I've hooked a 80mm 1700rpm 12V computer case fan directly into the DC terminals (these take over-volting pretty well) and set it under the loosened rectifier bracket. As of right now, it seems likely one could use the cooling fan that comes with the unit similarly. For Long term use I'd add a small resister to the fan so it won't burn out prematurely.

Today my units transformer is drawing 1.3A at 118V= 153 watts. Not too much as it's rated for 2.5A. I might add a 120V 2-2.5A inline fuse/breaker also, just in case.

I'll work on this more during the coming week and see how I can incorporate the flow sensor and such. Good luck!
mb3mb3

dc output voltage

Postby mb3mb3 » Tue 29 Jul, 2008 13:10

Forgot to mention that the transformer is putting out ~18.5V.
AGinCO

Intex 8110 Chlorine Generator Fix

Postby AGinCO » Mon 04 Aug, 2008 01:06

One more potential tip that doesn't involve taking things apart and rewiring etc...

I sometimes get a 91 (low salt) message after a minute or less of the green light going on. If I power it down and try setting it to run for fewer hours, sometimes as low as 1 hr, it works fine for the entire time. This I've mentioned before.

Now I just got a 91 error after even trying just a 1 hr cycle, so instead of lowering the hrs I increased the run time to 11 hrs just to see what would happen, and by-golly it's working just fine so far. It's a bit of a pain working through all these tips and tricks just to keep it going, but so far I haven't had to open mine up and fiddle with the internals. (knock on wood).

Good luck,

Brad
racermpn

Does it matter

Postby racermpn » Mon 04 Aug, 2008 14:14

I hooked up a 10 amp battery charger to mine just to bypass every thing and I was wondering if it matters what size the positive has to be attached to???
racermpn

Re: Does it matter

Postby racermpn » Mon 04 Aug, 2008 14:15

racermpn wrote:I hooked up a 10 amp battery charger to mine just to bypass every thing and I was wondering if it matters what size the positive has to be attached to???
I meant to say what side left or right.
Strannik-au
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Joined: Fri 04 Apr, 2008 13:17
Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Postby Strannik-au » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 03:46

If your unit is reverse polarity, then it doesn't, if it isn't - then it does. I believe Intex isn't reverse polarity (self cleaning) but i could be wrong.
racermpn

Question

Postby racermpn » Tue 05 Aug, 2008 17:42

I am not sure if it is reverse polarity or not. It seems as though the 10 amp charger cant keep up with the pump. When the unit was working you could see the chlorine coming out. Now with just the charger hooked up all you can see is tiny little bubbles. Show I use a 15 amp charger. Does anyone know how many amps the original intex unit puts out to make the chlorine???
Strannik-au
Swimming Pool Wizard
Swimming Pool Wizard
Posts: 77
Joined: Fri 04 Apr, 2008 13:17
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

Postby Strannik-au » Wed 06 Aug, 2008 08:43

first check if you have the correct polarity

blind guess would be that it needs 20-25 amps
you can estimate if you know what's the unit's power rating is, although manual should have how many amps/volts the output is
pooltroubled

Intex 8110

Postby pooltroubled » Thu 07 Aug, 2008 09:00

Well, it seems that there is definitely a problem with this unit design. My unit has only about 30 hrs on it but is not under warranty any longer as I bought at the end of summer 2006. I set up the pool last weekend and got the code 91 right away. This is only the second time this unit has been in service. I shut the unit off and on few times to see if that would clear it, it didn't. I did all the other cleaning things to. I left the unit off for a day but it was still plugged in and the power unit was pretty warm to the touch the next day but I went and turned it on anyway. The LED comes on with code 88 and when I try to enter the system I get rapid beeps from pressing the up arrow key ( the down arrow key beeps only once after 5 seconds as discussed in the manual ) and nothing else happens so I can't enter in any operational hours or anything. I unplugged it and let it sit for a few hours and tried again but no change.

Does anyone have any ideas about this problem, could it be the power unit?
pooltroubled

Intex 8110

Postby pooltroubled » Thu 07 Aug, 2008 09:23

I discussed this issue with Intex and since it is out of warranty they won't replace the unit but they also said that their trouble shooting tech thought it was an internal malfunction and since they don't sell internal replacement parts the unit needed to be trashed.

Looks like I need to follow some of the "fixes" outlined in this thread.

Would like to follow up on the battery charger thing so if anyone has any more info on that it would be appreciated.
racermpn

intex

Postby racermpn » Thu 07 Aug, 2008 10:16

Here are the specs for the intex machine

Power 110-120 volt AC
Amperage 2.5A
Wattage 250W

Is a 10 or 20 amp charger going to be too much. I am not an electrician so I just don't know.

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